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Wall St closed lower on Friday as investors maintain concerns over US interest rates. The Dow Jones fell 0.7%, the S&P500 lost 1.32% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2.24%.

Investor concerns for US interest rates rose, when Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, commented that the central bank “wasn’t in a hurry” to cut interest rates.

Over in Europe, markets closed lower, recording a fourth consecutive weekly decline. The STOXX600 fell 0.76% with media stocks dropping 3%, whilst mining stocks gained 1.3%. Germany’s DAX lost 0.27%, the French CAC dropped 0.58% and over in the UK the FTSE100 ended Fridays trading session down 0.09%.

Locally on Friday, the ASX200 gained 0.74% with all but one major sector closing in the green. Gains were led by the utilities and financial sectors which rallied 2.39% and 1.46% respectively. This was offset by the health sector which lost 1.76%.

 What to watch today:

• The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.31% at market open this morning.
• On the commodities front this morning,
  • Oil is trading 2.45% lower at 67 US dollars and 2 cents a barrel as OPEC cut its 2025 demand outlooks. 
  • Gold is trading 0.17% lower at 2562 US dollars an ounce and iron ore is trading 0.58% lower at 101 US dollars and 63 cents a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Aspen Group (ASX:APZ) and has a current share price of $2.40. Bell Potter’s 12-month price target of $2.75 shows a 14.6% share price growth over a year, hence the buy rating is maintained.
• And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Helloworld Travel (ASX:HLO) , indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $2.04 to the range of $2.25-$2.31, on a pattern formed over 49 days, according to the standard principles of technical analysis.